One high-profile Republican strategist, who refused to be named in order to avoid inflaming the very segments of the party he wants to silence, said there is a deliberate effort by party leaders to “marginalize the cranks, haters and bigots — there’s a lot of underbrush that has to be cleaned out.”

It's largely meaningless because, while the DC-wing of the Republican Party has always had a fair amount of contempt for the Teabaggers and Snakehandlers -- Lee Atwater used to call them "extra-chromosome" conservatives -- there aren't any serious policy differences between the two groups.

This mostly about the fact that the GOP keeps losing elections, with a few class and culture conflicts thrown in for good measure. But Karl Rove doesn't want to raise taxes on rich people or curb greenhouse gases or make it easier for working people to earn a living wage or regulate guns any more than Glenn Beck does.

Typical cowardly chicken hawks. If republicans in congress believe that we must go to war to stop Iran, then they can have a public debate on the record. They all for war as long as they don't have to be responsible or risk their own lives/careers.